After 40 years, longtime owners Ed Ladner and Milt Lennox are selling the Apartment Lounge, a tucked away watering hole in Grand Rapids that lays claim to the distinction of being the state’s oldest continually operating gay and lesbian friendly bar.

“It truly is a place where friends meet and new friends are made,” said Lennox, 77, who said respiratory health issues are forcing him into an inevitable retirement.

Johnson, who is taking over this month, has been visiting the Apartment Lounge since the days when the business was housed in a small building on the northeast corner of Fulton Street and Monroe Avenue, where the outdoor seating is located at The B.O.B.

The bar’s current spot on Sheldon Boulevard NE, nestled between the Grand Rapids Children’s Museum and Grand Rapids Civic Theatre under a gold letter ‘A,’ is the sixth location for the Apartment Lounge dating back to its genesis in 1972.

Johnson said the first time he met Lennox, the man goofed on him by sending him up a set of building stairs that led to an “upstairs bar” that didn’t really exist.

“It’s a huge honor to be asked to carry on their tradition, let me tell you,” said Johnson, who is planning on installing some new carpet, and perhaps a new music system, but is otherwise taking the don’t-fix-it-if-it’s-not-broke approach.

The bar also will begin accepting credit cards for the first time, he said.

“There was never any question who we were going to pick,” said Lennox, framing Johnson’s takeover of the business and the building as simply a matter of time.

Courtesy Photo | Apartment LoungeThis building on the northeast corner of Monroe Ave and Fulton Street was home to the Apartment Lounge in the 1980s.

Courtesy Photo | Apartment LoungeThe current home for the Apartment Lounge on Sheldon Blvd was home to the Incredible Edible Cafe before 1988.

The Apartment Lounge began in 1972 in a building on Lyon Street NW across from the Vandenberg Center that was later razed for an Ellis Parking deck.

The bar later migrated to the southeast corner of Ionia and Fulton, where Buffalo Wild Wings is now located, followed by a move to Bridge Street on the West Side, where it occupied what’s now Kale’s Korner Bar until 1977.

The bar moved further down Bridge to the present site of O’Toole's for a year before jumping back across the river to Plainfield Ave NW, where Graydon’s Crossing is now located. In 1978, they moved again to The B.O.B location and stayed for 10 years.

They moved to the present side, formerly the Incredible Edible Cafe, in 1988.

“We had a big following of customers who followed us from bar to bar,” said Ladner. “They would look forward to seeing what we did with a new place when we moved in, knowing what it looked like before the remodel.”

The final location is the “flagship” and has proven its longevity.

“We put this package together for our community because our community was never treated equally,” said Lennox. “We were never treated like human beings. We were just cash cows to the other operations that ran a gay bar.”

“When you walk though that door, you have a name and a personality. You are not a dollar sign.”

Ladner and Lennox have been life partners for 47 years, and are prone to finish each other’s sentences like any longtime married couple. The couple discovered in the early days that personalized service and a non-judgmental atmosphere was the recipe for getting straight and gay people to intermingle and enjoy some drinks together under one roof.

“In the beginning years, we would suggest seating arrangements,” said Lennox. “We knew where people would be the most comfortable.”

An inevitable part of that job was counseling the various young folks who came in for a drink and a friendly face after coming out to their parents, or giving advice to straight parents who just learned that their son or daughter was gay.

MLive file photoEd Ladner and Milt Lennox pour peppermint patty shots for some of their customers during happy hour. For years they have owned and run The Apartment Lounge near the Civic Theatre.

Acceptance and tolerance has come a long way in Grand Rapids, and they both agreed that the homosexual population is actually much larger than many would guess.

Longtime staples in the gay community, the men have given not just emotional support over the years, but lots of financial support. Their seed money helped start a number of organizations and events, from the AIDS Resource Center to the LGBT Network of Western Michigan to Gay Pride celebrations. Every spring for years the men held the Auction Against AIDS at their bar to raise money for local agencies.

The auction will be revived as a scholarship fundraiser in Ed and Milt’s honor, said Johnson.

"It's a hard act to follow," said Johnson. "These two were pioneers in the Grand Rapids gay community, but it's not just gay charities that benefited from them. They helped everybody."

These days, there’s maybe only one of their original customers still dropping by the Apartment for a drink, but every so often, a blast from the past shows up to the bar, always shocked to find Ed and Milt still popping beer caps and pouring cocktails.

“The emotional part of this sale is just overwhelming,” said Lennox. “Everybody just expects to see Ed and I in here. They all thought I was going out horizontal.”